Analysis of administrative sanctions and criminal prosecutions of doctors in Japan

To illustrate how administrative sanctions (AS) and criminal prosecution (CP) differ with regard to application with doctors' misconducts.

A total 465 doctors who were punished twice by AS and CP were analyzed using the proportional distribution method (PDM) to break down into the charge-specific months of suspension or imprisonment.

Overall, the Minister of Health, Labor & Welfare (MHLW) sanctioned doctors by suspending their licenses for twice the number of months that the court ordered for imprisonment. Charge-specific analysis of months (suspension or prison terms) revealed a different pattern of judgment. The MHLW judged obscenity more unethical, allocating a larger share of the total months of suspension to punish this misconduct, but judged bribery less unethical allocating a smaller share of the total months of suspension to punish this than the court. For traditional crimes like swindling, murder and psychostimulant abuse, both judgments followed similar patterns allocating the same share of months for punishment of such acts.

CP and AS were shown to have different patterns in their judgments of doctors' crimes or misconducts reflecting the different purposes they pursue: justice by CP and ethics by AS. (186 words).